Kirk, Coughlin have reasons to like their new swim suits

Published 4:00 am, Friday, April 4, 2008

Consider Tara Kirk a big fan of Speedo's innovative new swimsuit design for competitive swimmers. Natalie Coughlin, too. They are both under contract to the swimwear company, after all.

Kirk, a silver medalist in the 400 medley relay at the 2004 Olympics, and Coughlin, the world record-holder in the 100 backstroke, both will be wearing the new Speedo LZR Racer this weekend when they compete at the Stanford Grand Prix meet.

"I think it has better compression and it's slightly tighter," Kirk said. "If you're not super-thin, it helps there. It's super light. When it hits water, it's not heavy. It's clearly a very good suit."

The suit is causing a sensation as 13 world records have been set in the last six weeks by swimmers wearing the LZR, an ultra form-fitting suit engineered with the help of NASA's wind tunnels to reduce drag in the water.

"It's clearly slowing you down the least," Kirk said. "It's not like the suit itself is creating propulsion."

Kirk said the LZR is so advanced, "I think with the panels (on the suit), water flows over them better than skin."

Coughlin can attest to that. The winner of five Olympic medals at Athens in 2004 unexpectedly smashed her own world record in the 100 backstroke at the Missouri Grand Prix on Feb. 17. Wearing the LZR, Coughlin took down her record time from 59.44 seconds to 59.21.

"I wasn't expecting a fast time. It was the last day of the three-day meet," Coughlin said. "It was a very nice surprise. I attribute that to the fact it's an Olympic year and people are focused on this time period."

Coughlin is entered in five events at the Stanford Grand Prix meet at Avery Aquatic Center but may not swim all of them. The only sure thing is she'll go in the 100 free tonight; she said she will be in the water Saturday and Sunday as well.

The meet runs today through Sunday, with preliminaries at 9 a.m. each day and finals at 5 p.m.

"I think the main thing is it's a racing opportunity," said Teri McKeever, Coughlin's coach. "It's been over a month since she's raced. It's important to get back in a racing environment."

In this Olympic year, four months before Beijing, the weekend features a pair of concurrent Grand Prix meets, at Stanford and at Ohio State. In terms of star power, Stanford gets Coughlin and Jason Lezak while Ohio State gets Michael Phelps and Katie Hoff.

The Stanford meet works out perfectly for Kirk, who lives nearby and said she will ride her bike to the pool.

"It's an opportunity to swim fast and not travel far," she said. "I think there's going to be some fast people there. I've been training hard. I'm not expecting a world record. I had the fastest time in the U.S. last year. There's a bunch of girls right behind me. I think I have a good shot (at making the Olympic team) but anything can happen at the trials. You're talking about hundredths of a second."